I need a low impact foundation system for our wood cabin which has a 12mx4m base. All the builders I've spoken to have suggested concrete footings, 60cm square with concrete pilars on top, 5 under each 12m glulam beam. Besides involving lots of concrete and being time intensive (have to build a form for each pilar), it will also be very difficult to remove, if we ever decide to remove/move the cabin. The other option they've mentioned was concrete piles using a cardboard/plastic tube as the formwork - but these tubes are quire pricey for being disposable.
Are there any other options?

The soil is more sand than clay.

EDIT: I should also mention that there's a 1m difference in height between the shortest pilar and the tallest.

Wood cabins are usually very light. Generally, the critical design criteria of foundations is based on settlement rather than failure. However, if there's a significant slope on the site, this might not be the case. If you know the weight of your cabin, you could suggest to the BCO (if it's a BCO overseeing) that you simply strip off the equivalent weight of soil and then make "foundations' from paving slabs with bricks over (and use large hardwood wedges that can be re-adjusted if problems occur).

It would need some care, but there's no technical reason why this couldn't be done, particularly if you have a sandy soil.

Is the 1 m slope across the 4 or 12 m dimension? if its the 4m, the I would reckon that you need to get down to the subsoil. Else I would reckon that a couple of feet would do. I like the sound of the telegraph poles, should be good for 30 years.
Frank

Why are you wanting to sink timber in the ground? auger like you say, backfill with 25-50 mm stone, add wand vibrator usually used for screed to settle out and lock the stone, then put paving slab on top. any timber post you start your cabin with can take up the height difference between pavers, saving you the bother of trying to sit them level..

Fencing contractors can sink a 8"sq oak gate post 4ft deep in 15mins, using various techniques incl. tractor-mounted auger.

This is probably too late, but when I built my office and studio last year, we levelled the ground and built a frame from 50x100 timbers on paving slabs on sand on type 1 stone. It works fine.

The other option is helical steel piles which can be taken away and recycled when the building is removed.

Don't bother with concrete, use a steel screw post such as http://www.technometalpostusa.com/index.php?page=metal-post or http://www.pieuvistech.com/html/en/home.php

This latter type is what we used for a wrap-around porch/deck and it's cheaper, faster and easier to install than concrete sonotubes.

Paul in Montreal.